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State Titles | Max 10

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From left, Edina's Dave Maley, Bill Brauer and Wally Chapman celebrate after the Hornets won the 1982 state championship. Star Tribune file photo

Wally Chapman's adjustment to midseason changeup helped push Edina to 1982 state title

Willard Ikola, Edina’s houndstooth hat-wearing coaching icon, was equal parts mechanic and mad scientist. His ability to twist and turn and mix and meld pieces and parts into a precision hockey machine was unparalleled.

The Hornets’ 1981-82 season required double the usual amount of tinkering.

Edina East and Edina West had merged into one program, and getting the chemistry right was only part of the job. By the time Christmas arrived, Ikola knew he had another problem.

The Hornets’ top line of Dave Maley, John DeVoe and Wally Chapman was so dominant it seemed as if the trio could score at will.

“If you would see some of these goals these guys were scoring, it was unbelievable how good they were,” said Bill Brauer, a senior defenseman and co-captain for the Hornets that season.

The concern was, Edina, a senior-dominated team, wasn’t getting the same production from the rest of its lines. Not even close. Ikola wanted the scoring to be more balanced, so out came the adjustable wrenches and Bunsen burners.

Wally Chapman's OT goal against Bloomington Jefferson sent Edina into the championship game of the 1982 state tournament. Courtesy photo

Chapman was moved off the top line and switched from a wing to center. His new linemates were juniors Mike DeVoe and Dan Carroll, both of whom had been freshly elevated from the junior varsity.

Chapman had just been demoted. There was no other way to look at it.

“Ike calls me in and says, ‘Here’s the deal. We’re pulling these two kids up from the junior varsity and you are going to play on a line with them,’ ” Chapman said. “I have to admit I was not all that in favor of it. But when coach Ike tells you that, you say, ‘Yes sir, I’ll do my best.’ ”

It didn’t take Chapman long to adapt to the change. He enjoyed the added freedom that came with playing center in Ikola’s system. He also quickly realized that his new linemates were not your typical JV call-ups (both Carroll and DeVoe would go on to play Division I college hockey).

“As I look back on the change he made, as bummed out as I was at the time, it made me feel good that Ike believed I would be a guy who could have taken the change and say, ‘Let’s run with this, I need to be a leader and bring these guys along,’ ” Chapman said.

Now possessing the scoring balance Ikola coveted, Edina rolled through the Section 6 playoffs in dominating fashion. The Hornets beat Robbindale Cooper 6-1, Minnetonka 7-2 and Wayzata 8-1 to reach the state tournament.

The series of blowouts extended to the Civic Center in St. Paul, where Edina raced past Rochester Mayo 7-4 in the state tourney quarterfinals.

Up next was defending champion Bloomington Jefferson in the semifinals. The Jaguars had lost eight games during the regular season and didn’t figure to have the horsepower to keep pace with the Hornets.

Wally Chapman scored 27 goals during his senior season at Edina. Courtesy photo

Edina was leading 2-1 late in the third period when the Jaguars scored off a face off in the Hornets’ zone with 51 seconds left in regulation. The game was extended into overtime.

Just more than 7 minutes into the extra period, the Hornets broke out of their zone with the puck. All three forwards came in an eye-blurring wave as they sped into the Jefferson zone. Chapman took a drop pass from DeVoe and whipped a shot off the post and in.

“It was a typical Wally goal,” said Brian Cutshall, a Hornets forward that season, “he just ripped it.

“He had an unbelievably quick shot. He could just rifle the puck, and he was super strong on his skates. He’s just got these big legs. Guys would go to hit him and they would bounce right off him.”

The Hornets went on to rout White Bear Mariner 6-0 in the championship game.

Chapman not only survived Ikola’s line juggling, but he later discovered he played almost the entire season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament. Still, he scored 27 goals and added 11 assists, playing well enough to secure a scholarship from the University of Minnesota and be drafted by in the third round (154th overall) by the Minnesota North Stars.

“He was a just a solid, solid player,” said former Bloomington Jefferson assistant coach John Bianchi. “Very dependable. He scored a lot of key goals just because he was so intense.”

Chapman was a Gophers co-captain during the 1985-86 season and later played a couple of seasons of professional hockey before another knee injury hastened his retirement.

Chapman returned to high school hockey’s center stage as the head coach at Breck. He led the Mustangs to five state tournament appearances and Class 1A championships in 2000 and 2004.

The championships didn’t stop there. Chapman, whose father won a state basketball title in 1955 with Minneapolis Washburn, experienced another state tournament thrill in 2010 when his son Blake was a senior forward on Edina’s title-winning team.

No longer a coach, Chapman lives in Edina and works as a financial advisor and director of the Edina branch of RBC.